Listed Win Caps Slipper Island’s Breakthrough Season

Karaka graduate Slipper Island (No Nay Never) extended his winning sequence to four in a row with a black-type breakthrough in the $80,000 Listed City Of Napier Sprint (1200m) at Trentham on Saturday.

Slipper Island is a graduate of Hallmark Stud’s draft in Book 1 of Karaka 2021, where he was bought by Pike Racing for $180,000. He has now had 30 starts for six wins, nine placings and $246,664 in stakes.

Earlier this year, Slipper Island had only two wins to his name from 26 career starts and had earned less than $103,000. Within the space of four races down the sprint chute at Trentham, the highly talented gelding has turned that record right around.

The five-year-old won a Rating 65 sprint on Wellington Cup Day on January 18, then added back-to-back Rating 75 successes on March 2 and March 29. Trainer Tony Pike raised the bar again for Saturday’s Listed feature, and Slipper Island showed that he was right up to the task.

After settling in midfield for in-form apprentice jockey Lily Sutherland, Slipper Island dashed through a narrow opening along the rail to stake his claim at the top of the home straight. He surged past the front-running Idyllic (No Nay Never) and took command, but then he had to hold out the flying finishes of Pier (NZ) (Proisir) and Tomodachi (NZ) (Tarzino).

In a three-way photo finish, Slipper Island took the City Of Napier spoils by a half-head from Pier. Tomodachi finished the same margin away in third.

“He was very good today,” Pike said. “He’s certainly loved that chute at Trentham in his last few starts and has gone to a whole new level.

“He’s probably done enough in this preparation now and can go out for a bit of a spell. We’ll see how he comes up next time in, but if he could get to the level of a race like the Telegraph (Group One, 1200m) next January, that would be a great target to try to aim at.”

Slipper Island is out of the winning Redoute’s Choice mare Pedicel, who is a half-sister to the Group One Doncaster Handicap (1600m) and Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1600m) winner Nettoyer (Sebring).